Now with Mariners, Cliff Lee says he's moved on from Phillies

PEORIA, Ariz. — On the first day he threw off the mound this spring, there were no outward signs that Cliff Lee hadn’t been with the Seattle Mariners for years.

He smiled and joked with his teammates as they ran through pitchers’ fielding practice. He jogged comfortably from field to field at the Peoria Sports Complex. He appeared to be, well, right at home.

Just looking at him, the pitcher who came across as genuinely anguished about being traded from the Phillies to the Mariners a week after the winter meetings last December, was over it. The lefthander who almost instantly won over the notoriously skeptical hearts of Phillies fans, in fact, talked a lot Wednesday about having put certain issues behind him.

The thing is, he was referring to the Feb. 5 surgery to remove a bone spur from his left foot.

Lee is fully aware of how popular he became in Philadelphia in a breathtakingly short period of time. He knows many fans were just as unhappy that he was leaving as they were happy that Roy Halladay was arriving at the same time. And, he’s moved on.

Or has he?

“It took a couple of days. It’s not like I was that out of whack about it. It just caught me off guard, really,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting it. It just goes to show that you never know what’s going to happen in this game. It’s part of it.”

But then he added: “You’re at the mercy of the team and what they decide to do with you. That’s the nature of the game. There’s no way around that. You’ve got to try to stay positive wherever you’re at and try to help the team that you’re on win. And that’s it. There’s really nothing else you can do.”

AP FileWerthAsked if he has kept in touch with his former teammates, he said he talked to Jayson Werth on the phone a few times and Shane Victorino on a couple of occasions. So that means he doesn’t think about the Phillies anymore, right?

“I didn’t have a whole lot of the guys’ numbers. I wasn’t expecting the last time I saw everybody that it was the last time I’d be seeing them in a while,” he added. “If I would have known it was going to happen this way, I probably would have gotten a few more phone numbers.”

He smiled when he said it, played it off as a joke. Except that it’s hard not to come away believing that he still can’t quite get over the way it all came down.

To recap: Lee was a godsend to a battered and tattered pitching staff when he was acquired from the Cleveland Indians last July. The Phillies might not have made the playoffs without him. He was brilliant in the postseason, including two moments in Game 1 of the World Series — a behind-the-back grab and a nonchalant catch of a popup — that will be part of any highlights reel on that Phillies-Yankees matchup.

A few weeks later, on Dec. 16, the Phillies sent Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor and Travis D’Arnaud to the Blue Jays for Halladay. At the same time, they traded Lee to the Mariners for prospects Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies and J.C. Ramirez.

It’s understood that the Phillies wouldn’t have made the move without Halladay agreeing to a three-year extension. That’s about all the parties agree on, though.

Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said recently his fear was that Lee, Joe Blanton and Jamie Moyer could all be gone at the end of the 2010 season. “That’s a tough position to put yourself in when you’ve invested so much in position players,” he said.

He said the goal of talking to Lee’s representatives at that point had “always been the same. And that was to try to keep (Lee) in our uniform past 2010.”

And he said at the end of that meeting he had “discomfort” about whether keeping Lee was going to be possible. “We had a pretty good feel about what it was going to take at that point.”

Lee’s agent, Darek Braunecker, walked away with an entirely different impression of what had taken place, however. And he said that, even if he had known that Halladay was lurking offstage, he wouldn’t have approached the table any differently.

“We couldn’t have,” he said. “The bottom line is that it was an introductory meeting. Information-gathering is what it was. To find out about each side’s expectations and limitations. We were aware of their lack of history in giving longer than three-year deals to pitchers. They said it wasn’t a hard-and-fast rule and that if they were ever going to make an exception, Cliff was the type of pitcher they’d make it for.

“It wasn’t us saying X-amount of years to even engage in discussions. It was more philosophical and we left with the feeling that we had a chance to get something done ... When we left the meeting, it was communicated to us that they had been encouraged by our discussions.”

Quickly, though, whispers began to surface that a Halladay deal was imminent. Lee, at first, was thrilled. He has said he thought that meant both would be with the Phillies. Updated versions of the rumor made it clear it was an either-or situation. If Halladay was in, Lee was out.

“I don’t want to say we were misled, but we were told that they were encouraged and optimistic a deal could be made,” Braunecker said.

“They handled it the way they felt it needed to be handled. But when we inquired, on multiple occasions, about whether there was validity to the reports and speculation of the trade, they continued to deny the accuracy of such reports. Surprised? At some point we were aware of the possibility that it could happen. But even until they made the call that they were moving Cliff, we still held out hope of the possibility that it might not happen.”

Except, of course, that it did. Which is why Lee found himself outside of Phoenix on Wednesday, wearing a Seattle uniform, instead of in Clearwater with the Phillies.

The Mariners figure to have a good chance to win the American League West this season with Felix Hernandez and Lee at the top of their rotation.

Lee is slightly behind the other M’s pitchers because of the surgery but said he didn’t even think about that Wednesday, that he just concentrated on trying to locate his pitches.

“It went good. I wasn’t as sharp as I’d like, but I haven’t been off the mound for a while, so I guess that’s to be expected,” he reported after throwing 45 pitches. “Feel good, foot’s fine, body feels good.”

Some back in Philadelphia have wondered if history might repeat itself, if the Phillies might be able to once again get Lee before the trade deadline if they find themselves in need of a starter.

Answer: doubtful. After trading prospects for Blanton, Lee and Halladay, the minor league cupboard has been emptied. In fact, one of the given reasons for giving up Lee was to start restocking. Besides, the Mariners are likely to be contending at that point, not looking to move one of the best pitchers in baseball.

Others have thought about the possibility that the Phillies might sign Lee as a free agent next winter.

Nice thought but, again, it doesn’t seem likely. The payroll is already expected to exceed $140 million, Jayson Werth can be a free agent at the end of this year and decisions on Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins loom after 2011.

“That’s a long way from now,” Lee said. “Right now I’m a Mariner. It’s hard to sit here and talk about another organization. For right now I’m a Mariner. I’m going to make the best of this situation. I’m excited about the guys we’ve got in this clubhouse. It looks like we’re going to have a pretty good team. I’m looking forward.”

Lee wasn’t the only one blindsided by the trade, by the way. The Phillies’ marketing department had been working on a bobblehead promotion when the deal scuttled their plans.

Instead, the Mariners have scheduled Cliff Lee Little League Poster Day before their May 2 game against the Texas Rangers at Safeco Field.

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